United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enforcement
and Compliance
Assurance (2201 A)
EPA/300-F-03-003
Mav 2003
Office of Environmental Justice (OE.T)
&EPA Environmental Justice
Fact Sheet
EPA's Commitment to
Environmental Justice
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
EPA Administrator
Christine Todd Whitman has
reaffirmed die Agency's
commitment to environmental
justice as a "goal to be
achieved for all communities
and persons across this
Nation... when everyone, regardless of race, culture, or
income, enjoys the same degree of protection from
environmental and health hazards..." In her August 9, 2001
memorandum, the Administrator directed EPA's senior
managers to integrate environmental justice into all EPA
policies, programs, and activities. In the following year, each
Headquarter and Regional Office developed implementation
plans to transform the Administrator's words into action, with
measurable results. Each organization began deploying these
Action Plans to Integrate Environmental Justice in fiscal year
2003. Inherently strategic in nature, these action plans
represent the commitments of each office over the next 1-5
years.
The key elements of the Action Plan are:
management accountability, internal/external stakeholder
involvement, data collection/management, training,
environmental justice assessment, and evaluation. The plan
offers some flexibility for each office, yet also provides a
consistent and holistic approach to environmental justice
integration. OEJ's role is to provide direction and constructive
feedback to the Regional and Headquarter offices on their
implementation strategies and measurable results. OEJ is in
the process of developing suggested performance measures for
the next round of Action Plans to be submitted by each office
on September 30, 2003.
Through the OEJ, the Agency provides leadership
internal and external around the issues of environmental
justice. The following information on EPA's activities is
taken from our Environmental Justice Biennial
Accomplishments Report (2001-2002): Constructive
Engagement and Collaborative Problem-Solving to be
released in Spring 2003.
To obtain the complete Biennial Report, please
contact the National Sendee Center for Environmental
Publications at (800) 489-8190 and request document number
.
For more information on EPA's Environmental
Justice Program, visit or call (800) 962-6215.
Regional Listening Sessions
In 2002. the Regional offices agreed to conduct
Regional listening sessions to engage the participants in active
discourse, on topics ranging from general to specific areas of
common interest/concern, and to work effectively towards
mutually beneficial solutions. OEJ developed basic guidelines
for conducting these dialogues as interactive, solution-oriented
dialogues conducted with the community, and in partnership
with federal, state, Tribal, local and municipal government
representatives. These dialogues are intended to demonstrate
EPA's responsiveness in addressing environmental, health,
and quality of life concerns. Several regions conducted at
least one listening session in 2002 and details of these sessions
are available upon request. Additional outreach activities
across EPA are featured in the upcoming Biennial Report.
Interagencv Work Group (IWG) Revitalization Projects
In the year 2000, the IWG embarked on the first
round of national demonstration projects in 2000. In just two
years, these 15 projects have met with significant
achievements. Through these projects, over 150 organizations
and 11 federal agencies have established working relationships
and secured a sum of more than $15 million in public and
private funding to address issues ranging from children's
health to economic revitalization. As a result of these projects,
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a multi-stakeholder collaborative model is emerging to address
environmental justice. An EPA report on these projects,
"Environmental Justice Collaborative Model: A Framework to
Ensure Local Problem-Solving," is available at
. Also, the International City/County
Management Association convened a national forum last year
called, "Collaborative Models to Achieve Environmental
Justice," to examine these projects.
In Fall 2002, the IWG solicited nominations for a
second round of demonstration projects, also referred to as
"Environmental Justice Revitahzation Projects." The goal of
this second round is to develop a fully mature,
multi-stakeholder collaborative model to address the multiple
environmental, health, economic, and social concerns of
communities disproportionately and adversely affected by
environmental pollution. The selected revitalization projects
will be announced in Spring 2003.
Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Grant
Program
In Summer 2003. OEJ will launch an Environmental
Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Grant Program for 15
non-profit community -based organizations. The goal of this
$1.5M grant program is to assist in the capacity building of
community-based organizations who wish to engage in
constructive and collaborative problem-solving by utilizing
EPA tools to find viable solutions for their community's
environmental justice issues.
Environmental Justice Small Grants Program
Since 1994, the Environmental Justice Small Grants
program has provided financial assistance to community-based
organizations working on local solutions to local
environmental problems. From a pilot program with a $500,00
budget and a $10,000 limit per award, it has grown to $1.3
million in FY02, with awards of $20,000 each. To date, the
program lias awarded approximately $16.4 million to 973
grant recipients and has a broad impact among communities
with environmental justice issues. Small grants projects
continue to address an array of environmental and human
health issues such as childhood asthma, farmworker pesticide
protection, fish consumption, indoor air quality, drinking water
contamination, and lead poisoning prevention.
Environmental Justice Fundamentals Training
The Fundamentals of Environmental Justice
Workshop explores the origins of the Environmental Justice
movement, perceptions and definitions of environmental
justice, laws pertaining to environmental justice, and provides
an overview of Geographic Information Systems ("GIS"), and
other analytical tools to help understand, integrate and address
environmental justice issues. The goals of the workshop are to
identify and address environmental justice issues. Participants
learn to effectively engage in productive dialogue around the
issues of environmental justice and promote constructive and
collaborative problem-solving techniques. Equally important
is the goal to integrate aspects of environmental justice into
the participants' work on a daily basis. These training sessions
are a means to consistently integrate environmental justice into
environmental programs.
The workshop is a product of the Environmental
Justice Training Collaborative (EJTC), and led by OEJ. The
EJTC began in 1998 when EPA's western regions responded
to the growing need for better understanding of environmental
justice. In the early stages, members developed a basic
curriculum and worked with other partners to identify training
needs and plan train-the-trainer events. More than 100
partners including federal, state, academia, tribal, industry, and
community groups have formed an electronic listserv to stay
connected on training matters. Over the past two years, the
workshop lias trained over 1,500 people across the country
with participants from federal, state and local governments,
and grassroots organizations, business and academia. The
EJTC received an EPA bronze medal in 2002 for its
outstanding work to help integrate environmental justice into
the daily operations at EPA and across the country. OEJ is
preparing additional training modules for permit writers and
inspectors.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Training for Communities
On September 20-21, 2002, OEJ sponsored a pilot
training session in El Monte, California. Thirty community
representatives participated in this workshop to learn about
basic dispute resolution techniques. The goal is to increase the
communities' awareness of collaborative problem-solving as
an option to litigation. The course was developed through a
cooperative agreement with the Consensus Building Institute
(CBI), in conjunction with Justice & Sustainability Associates.
EPA's Region 9 staff participated in the session and were
instrumental in the outreach to communities interested hi
attending the session in California. CBI is also developing six
environmental justice dispute resolution case studies as a
supplement to the workshop. Thanks to the success of this
pilot session, a similar workshop is being planned for
September 2003 in Memphis. Tennessee, for communities in
the eight-state vicinity of EPA Region 4.
Environmental Careers Organization Internships
The Environmental Careers Organization (ECO) has
been working with EPA to foster environmental opportunities
ever since OEJ opened its doors back in 1992. Students
receive practical experience working in fields such as science,
engineering, law, computer science, political analysis, and
more. To date, over $36 million has been invested in this
program called "Furthering Environmental Careers." which
has given more than 2.200 students opportunities for
on-the-job training and community involvement. By nurturing
these students, OEJ also hopes to ingrain the concept of
environmental justice in the next generation of environmental
professionals.
The success of the EPA/ECO partnership lias
spawned another program with a direct benefit to
communities. Since OEJ launched its Community Intern
Program in 2000 more than 60 students have gained working
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experience at the grassroots level. This program has allowed
students to assist community organizations on environmental
issues. To learn more about the program, visit
.
Environmental Law Institute Studies
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) published
Opportunities for A ch'ancing Environmental Justice: An
Analysis of US EPA Statutory Authorities as an in-depth look
at the major environmental laws governing air and water
quality, waste management, pesticide and chemical regulation,
and public right-to-know. The report also identifies specific
statutory authorities for promoting environmental justice in die
full range of EPA program functions: standard setting and
permitting, enforcement, delegation of program authority to
States, information gathering, and financial assistance.
Subsequently, ELI published A Citizen's Guide to Using
Environmental Lmvs to Secure Environmental Justice as a
"plain English" resource to familiarize communities with
federal statutes and find opportunities for meaningful public
involvement in environmental decisionmaking. These studies
were made possible through a cooperative agreement with
OEJ. In addition, the Environmental Law Institute, Southwest
Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, and the
United Church of Christ are developing a video version. This
video can be used as a training tool to show how
environmental laws can be used to address pollution of the
water, land, and air. It will also display the power of the
people to use environmental laws to protect their communities.
The video will be completed in Summer 2003.
National Academy of Public Administration Studies
The National Academy of Public Administrators
(NAPA) issued a trilogy of reports through a cooperative
agreement with OEJ. The reports encompass environmental
justice at the federal, state, and local/municipal government
levels. Environmental Justice in EPA Permitting: Reducing
Pollution in High Risk Communities is Integral to EPA 's
Mission (December 2001) examines practical areas for
integration into site-specific air. water, and waste permits. In
Models for Change: Efforts by Four States to Address
Environmental Justice (June 2002), NAPA examines several
crosscutting and innovative approaches by four distinct states
as they address environmental justice concerns. The third
report, to be released in Spring 2003, will focus on the role of
local land-use and zoning practices in creating, addressing,
and/or alleviating environmental justice issues.
Business/Industry Best Practices Study
OEJ commissioned the Marasco Newton Group to
study industry-based perspectives on environmental justice.
Entitled, "A Study of Industry's Views and Approaches
Regarding Environmental Justice" demystifies the businesses'
perspectives, and provides insight to their proactive efforts.
The purpose of the study is to examine how environmental
justice can be more effectively integrated into the corporate
decisionmaking process. A draft report on their findings was
released in December, 2002. The final version, due in Spring
2003, will highlight best industry practices that various
businesses have adopted to address environmental justice
issues when siting and permitting their facilities.
NEJAC Fish Consumption and Pollution Prevention Reports
Three years ago the National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) shifted the focus of its national
meetings on broad public policy issues with the goal of
providing effective advice and cogent recommendations to
EPA. Since 1999. the NEJAC lias focused on the following
issues: the permitting process, community-based health
research models, federal agency environmental justice
implementation, and fish consumption and water quality
standards. Delivering salient advice and recommendations to
the Agency on any given public policy issue requires the
NEJAC's Executive Committee to convene a diverse, multi-
stakeholder workgroup devoted to examining a specific policy
issue and deliberating with the NEJAC on that issue. With the
assistance of the Fish Consumption Workgroup, the NEJAC
published its findings and recommendations on "Fish
Consumption and Environmental Justice" in 2002. The
NEJAC also completed a report entitled, "Advancing
Environmental Justice Through Pollution Prevention." This
report focuses on several approaches such as source reduction,
waste minimization, sustainable development, and other
innovative approaches to systematically reduce, eliminate,
and/or prevent pollution.
Geographic Information Systems Workgroup
The Environmental Justice Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) Workgroup was established to assist in the
development of a national GIS-based environmental justice
assessment tool. Once completed, this powerful tool will
provide a robust set of indicators relevant to environmental
justice and will greatly assist EPA in decisionmaking. The
emphasis of this project is to consider which communities are
disproportionately and adversely impacted by environmental
risks: understand the social, economic, health environmental.
and other factors associated with these risks; and develop
approaches to address the communities' environmental justice
issues. The Workgroup consists of representatives from both
the GIS and environmental justice staffs from all the regional
offices and several headquarter program offices. It is co-
chaired by OEJ and the Office of Environmental Information.
10th Anniversary of the Office of Environmental Justice
On November 20, 2002, the EPA celebrated the 10th
anniversary of the creation of the Office of Environmental
Justice. Ten years ago, OEJ (then Office of Environmental
Equity) was established to promote environmental protection
for all people, including those in minority and/or low-income
communities. EPA marked this occasion with a special
program that highlighted the Agency's progress toward
integrating environmental justice in ah1 policies, programs, and
activities, as affirmed by Administrator Christine Todd
Whitman hi her memorandum, dated August 9, 2001.
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OFFICE OF
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CONTACTS
HEADQUARTERS
CONTACTS:
OFFICE #
FAX#
REGIONAL
CONTACTS:
OFFICE #
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
Use this address and the Mail Code (MC) for each Office.
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION AND RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT - MC-3102-A
CarolynLevine 202-564-1859 F: 202-564-1887
OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION
MC-6101-A
Wil Wilson 202-564-1954 F: 202-564-1549
AMERICAN INDIAN ENVIRONMENTAL
OFFICE - MC-4104
JoseAguto 202-564-0289 F: 202-564-0298
OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS - MC-1201-A
Mike Mattheisen 202-564-7291 F: 202-501-1836
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION,
EDUCATION & MEDIA RELATIONS - MC-1702-A
Doretta Reaves 202-564-7829 F: 202-501-1773
OFFICE OF ENFORCEMENT AND
COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE - MC-2201-A
Shirley Pate 202-564-2607 F: 202-501-0284
OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
MC-2812-A
William Ocampo (acting) 202-566-0982 F: 202-566-0977
OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE - MC 2201A
Mustafa Ali 202-564-2606 F: 202-501-0740
Maria Hendriksson 202-564-1897 F: 202-501-0936
OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL - MC-2322-A
Jeff Keohane 202-564-5548 F: 202-564-5541
OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES - MC-2610R
Wendy Graham 202-564-6602 F: 202-565-2408
OFFICE OF POLICY, ECONOMICS & INNOVATION
- MC-1807T
Leaune Nurse (acting) 202-566-2207 F: 202-566-2211
Daria Willis 202-566-2217 F: 202-566-2220
OFFICE OF PREVENTION, PESTICIDES &
TOXIC SUBSTANCES - MC-7101M
Elaine Lyon-Johnson 202-564-0547 F: 202-564-0550
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT - MC-8103R
Sam Williams 202-564-6782 F: 202-565-2912
OFFICE OF SOLID WASTE AND
EMERGENCY RESPONSE - MC-5101T
Kent Benjamin 202-566-0185 F: 202-566-0202
OFFICE OF WATER - MC-4102T
Alice Walker 202-564-0498 F: 202-529-7534
USEPA, REGION 1
Katliy Castagna 617-918-1429
One Congress Street, 11th Floor
Boston, MA 02203-0001
USEPA, REGION 2
Terry Wesley 212-637-5027
290 Broadway, Room 2637
New York, NY 10007
USEPA, REGION 3
Reginald Harris 215-814-2988
1650 Arch St. (MC-3ECOO)
Philadelphia, PA 19103
USEPA, REGION 4
Cynthia Peurifoy
61 Forsytli Street
Atlanta.' GA 30303
404-562-9649
USEPA, REGION 5
Karla Owens 312-886-5993
77 West Jackson Blvd. T-16J
Chicago, IL 60604-3507
USEPA, REGION 6
Olivia Balandran
Fountain Place, 12'h Floor
1445 Ross Ave.,(RA-D)
Dallas, TX 75202-2733
USEPA, REGION 7
Althea Moses 913-551 -7649
901 North5tlh Street (ECORA)
Kansas Citv,KS 66101
USEPA, REGION 8
Art Palomares
999 18th Street, Suite 500
Denver, CO 80202-2405
USEPA, REGION 9
Rachel Loftin
75 Hawthorne Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
303-312-6358
415-972-3795
USEPA, REGION 10
Susanne Salcido 206-553-1687
1200 Sixth Avenue (CRE-164)
Seattle, WA 98101
FAX#
F: 617-918-1029
F: 212-637-4943
F: 215-814-2905
F: 404-562-9664
F: 312-886-2737
214-665-7257 F: 214-665-6648
F: 913-551-7941
F: 303-312-6904
F: 415-947-3562
F: 206-553-7176
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